what are hedge funds ?

they are basically investment pools for the millionaires and billionaires . there is a certain minimum amount of money to get into the investments.

they invest into various instruments : bonds , real estate , futures , options , stocks , developing nations – they are loosely monitored , and hedge fund managers are known to earn upto 1 billion us dollars per year , maybe even more

some of them become large shareholders of companies and then become activist shareholders – and can dictate the dividends and even the day to day operations of the company ( which C level executive stays or goes ) . they are known to buy seats on the boards of companies as well

some of the hedge funds are

• bridgewater associates – ceo , ray dalio
• carl icahn enterprises – ceo , carl icahn
• citadel – ceo , ken griffin
• elliott management – founder , paul singer
• jpmorgan – ceo , jamie dimon
• pershing square – ceo , bill ackman
• point72 asset management – ceo , steven cohen

quite a few of them are mentioned in the book – quants – by scott patterson

Quite a few of the hedge funds employ mathematical wizards and are known to use speed trading ( executing a lot of trades within the time frame of a second or less ) – quantitative analysis – use mathematical models to predict and make profits

you might also want to read the book – flash boys by michael lewis

in today’s world , almost 70 percent of the stock market trades are taken by a computer , using cold hard math , no emotions !!